Pear Disco Donuts

Two years ago I started graduate school at UC Berkeley, and participated in my first departmental pear-off. Some of you may remember a previous post about my pear croissants, which won third place. After a one-year hiatus, the pear-off is back!

Why a pear-off? Dr. Steve Lindow's lab studies the bacteria that naturally occur on plants. These epiphytic bacteria can either be good or bad for the plant and the pears for this years Pear Off came from an experiment in cooperation with UC Farm advisors. The experiment asked whether or not good bacteria and yeasts could outcompete the bad guys that cause Fire Blight disease and Russet on pears. Even if you're not a microbiologist you might already be aware of the good yeasts on fruits such as grapes or plums (it's that fine, white, powdery stuff on the surface).  You can thank naturally occurring bacteria for the cute little freckles on pears. These bacteria produce the plant hormone, Auxin, which influences both the shape and coloration of the fruit. If these bacteria become too numerous on the surface of the pear, they can cause abnormal fruit development and a particular type of discoloration known as Russet.

At the end of each summer, local orchards send cases and cases of pears to the Lindow Lab for evaluation. Though the pears never enter the lab - Dr. Lindow camps out in the hallway and looks at each individual pear to evaluate its shape and coloration. Then the pears are free to be eaten. The Lindow Lab receives a lot of pears, so they started the annual pear-off competition to encourage their use and ensure that they don't just go to waste. This year I decided to make yeast raised donuts filled will pear.

Yeast raised donuts begin with yeast.

Sprinkle 4½ teaspoons of yeast over 1 cup warm water (~110°F) and let sit for a few minutes till it dissolves and becomes bubbly.

Add 1 cup of All Purpose Flour...

...stir it in until the mixture is smooth.

Then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set it in a warm place to rise until bubbly (30-60min).

Meanwhile, make the rest of the dough. Beat 10 Tablespoons of butter in a mixer until creamy.

Slowly add 2/3 cup of sugar and continue to beat until light and fluffy.

Scrape down the bowl periodically.

Add 3 large eggs one at a time while mixing.

Scrape down the bowl one more time and beat until smooth and fluffy.

Add 2 teaspoons of vanilla and a big pinch of salt (~1 tsp).

The yeast and flour are ready when they look like this:

I wish I had a video of this because it was wildly bubbling! So alive!

Add the yeast mixture with 3½ along cups of flour to the butter mixture and mix it all together. 

At first it will be goopy, but let it mix for several minutes so that the gluten develops. You'll know it's ready when it forms a ball and starts to clean the sides of the bowl.

Butter a large bowl and turn the dough out of the mixer bowl into the buttered bowl.

Again, cover with plastic and let it rise in a warm place for about 2 hours.

It'll rise a lot!

"punch" the dough down. I used my finger to press it down.

Then cover it in plastic wrap and plastic bag and let it sit in the fridge overnight.

The next morning, make the pear filling. I peeled and diced four pears, sprinkled them with cinnamon and then let them cook on the stove just long enough for some of the liquid to evaporate so that my doughnuts wouldn't get too soggy in the end. (side note: four pears resulted in too much pear filling, three probably would have been plenty)

Interestingly these pears didn't hold up as well as I was hoping and they instantly turned into more of a pear sauce. Oh well, the donuts must go on! 

When you're ready to start rolling out donuts, remove the dough from the fridge.

Cut the dough in half and roll out one half at a time. Roll it out to 1/2 inch thick for regular donuts, or in this case, for filled donuts roll it out to 1/8-1/4 inch thick.

Use a cookie-cutter to cut out circles (or whatever shape you want).

Place a small dollop of filling on top of one circle, then top it with another circle and seal it shut. Make sure you seal these together really well because they will expand a lot and can easily pop open if there is any seam left between the two circle of dough. I smushed the edges together until I couldn't tell where one circle ended and the other circle began. 

Let the donuts rise for about 30 minutes before frying. Though by the time you are assembling the last donut, the first donuts will likely be ready to fry.

This dough can be re-rolled, and it makes great donut "holes" too.

Heat up some neutral oil in heavy-bottomed pot for frying. I like grapeseed oil, but canola or safflower will work too. Fry on both sides until golden brown and let drain on a paper towel.

Allow the donuts to cool completely before glazing. They'll cool fastest on a wire rack.

For the glaze I used some of the juice that I strained off of the pear filling, plus a little bit of store-bought pear juice. I made up this glaze on the fly and ended up making WAY too much. I started by boiling 2 cups of pear juice for a few minutes and then adding 4 Tablespoons of butter.

Whisk to combine and let it cool. Then add powdered sugar until the desired consistency is achieved. I ended up adding 6 cups of powdered sugar before I has happy enough with the consistency and nearly out of powdered sugar! Also, it's important to sieve the sugar into the buttery juice to avoid clumps.

Dip each donut in the glaze and then let them drip dry on a rack. And of course - sprinkle with disco dust before they dry completely!

mmmm yeasty doughy goodness with a tasty morsel of pear!

See how they shimmer in the sunlight! Also a cupcake carrier is a great way to transport donuts across town.

photo credit: Elena Antonova

My cohort buddy, Jeff named my donuts as soon as he saw them and exclaimed "Disco Donuts!" And so it was. Also one of my co-workers who is Polish informed me that I didn't make donuts, I made Paczki -  I had no idea!

photo credit: Elena Antonova

It seemed like most of the department showed up to taste a truly impressive spread of peary concoctions. There was Pear & Proscuitto Bruschetta, Chocolate Pear Tart, Pear Cupcakes, Pear Caramel Bake, Pear Butter with the most adorable little pancakes ever, Pear Chocolate Cake, Pear Heffeweizen Ice Cream, Pear Almond Ginger Galette, Pear Ice Cream with Pear Topping, Pear Pie, Pear Cobbler, Pear Upsidedown Cake, Pear Spanikopita, Pear Fritters, Pear Crisp, and Pear Caramel Candies.

Each person got three votes to vote for their top three favorite dishes. It was immediately clear that my lab-mate, Gabe, had won by a landslide with his Pear Ice Cream (it was a darn fine ice cream). But to determine second and third place the votes were tallied...

photo credit: Elena Antonova

photo credit: Elena Antonova

...and in the end I won second place! Woohoo! Thanks to the Lindow Lab and everyone who created and consumed some of the best pear things I've ever had.

photo credit: Elena Antonova

..............

Yeast Donuts

 ( from the Joy of Cooking)

1 cup Warm Water

4½ tsp Yeast

1 cup Flour

..

10 Tbsp Unsalted Butter

2/3 cup Sugar

3 Large Eggs

2 tsp Vanilla

1 tsp Salt

(optional lemon or orange zest)

..

3½ cups Flour

.............

Pear Filling
3-4 Pears
sprinkle Cinnamon

..............

Pear Donut Glaze
 ( reduced version of the ridiculous quantity described above)

½ cup Pear Juice

1 Tbsp Unsalted Butter

1½-2 cups Powdered Sugar

Honey Chocolate Peanut-butter Banana

Another Alex creation. This is a common late night snack for him, long after I've gone to bed. He graciously recreated this midnight ritual during the harsh light of day and he even aloud me to document the entire process. So here it is for your enjoyment and inspiration - Alex's late night goop of marvelous deliciousness!

Forage the wild kitchen for the elusive banana!

Prepare a bowl with several scoops of peanut butter.

...and get some chocolate chips and honey nearby.

Peel the banana while butter melts on the stove, then slice the banana into the butter and fry it.

Gently flip these delicate morsels with a spoon and continue to fry just until they begin to have the slightest amount of color on them.

Transfer the fried banana to the peanut butter bowl and immediately add chocolate chips and honey.

Notice how the chocolate chips melt into the hot fried banana. Mmmmmmm.

The next part is critical, and Alex assured me that any photo would surely be disgusting.

Once the chocolate chips are melted, mix everything together with a spoon, and enjoy.

I think it's actually rather beautiful. A complex landscape of peanut, chocolate, honey, and banana!

When life gives you plums...

...make plum cakes!

Our half-a-duplex apartment has a plum tree in the back yard. It's a pretty small tree that looks like it's been badly abused (like someone took a hatchet to the trunk!). I was not expecting the quantity of golden delicious plums it would produce! I was taking a large bowl of plums with me to work every day to share with my coworkers. Then one of my coworkers, Jens, suggested that perhaps I should make something with the plums, like cake. For some reason that hadn't occurred to me, and I was uninspired by the idea of jam... but cake! Cake is always a good idea.

Since Jens is German and he suggested plum cake, it occurred to me that Germans and Americans might have a different perception of "plum cake", so I went to my German cookbook first. According to that book, German Plum Cake (Zwetschgenkuchen!) is essentially a plum tart - pie crust with plums layered inside, meh. I was on a cake mission, not a pie/tart mission! So I opened up Baking With Julia and found my first plum cake recipe.

---- CAKE #1 ----

Oven-Roasted Plum Cakes

1 stick Unsalted Butter

2/3cup Light Borwn Sugar

2 Large Eggs

1tsp Orange Zest (I used lemon)

1/2tsp Vanilla

1cup Flour

3/4tsp Baking Soda

1/4 Buttermilk (I used whole milk)

4-5 Large Ripe Plums

Instead of light brown sugar, I use evaporated cane juice plus a drizzle of molasses. Make sure the butter is near room temp (but not melted) and then cream together the butter and sugar. I failed to notice the recipe says to only cream 1/3cup of the sugar and the remaining 2/3cups is for sprinkling on top of the cakes...either way works.

Add the eggs one at a time...

...add vanilla...

...add lemon or orange zest...

Scrape the batter off the edges and bottom of the bowl with a spatula to make sure that everything is getting evenly incorporated. Butter some large ramekins, small bread pans, or whatever you want to make your cakes in...

...halve and pit plums...

Divide the batter among the buttered dishes and then gently press plums on top of the batter. If you want, you can sprinkle the plums with brown sugar. Then bake at 350degrees until a knife or toothpick comes out clean.

These cakes were intended to end up with a plum slice on top coated in melted brown sugar. However I put all the sugar into the cake batter and then pressed my plums into the batter too far so the batter enveloped them as it cooked. This is all aesthetic though, they were delicious. Also, I think it would be hard to over cook these because one came out under cooked even though it was dark brown and pulling away from the edges.

---- CAKE #2 ----

The second plum cake was inspired by another coworker, Jason, and his infamous campfire cast-iron upside-down cake. I'd never made upside-down cake before, but I was stoked to make cake in my cast iron skillet! I queried the internet for plum upside-down cake and decided to follow the advice of David Lebowitz (I've been ending up on his blog a lot lately...)

Upside-down cake is made from the bottom up and it all begins with caramel...

Cinnamon Caramel

3 Tbsp Unsalted Butter

3/4cup Sugar

liberal dash of cinnamon

Melt the butter and sugar together in a cast-iron skillet. I also added a sprinkle of cinnamon. Stir to make sure it cooks evenly.

Turn off the heat when it suddenly becomes smooth and looks like caramel. Continue to stir for a few seconds and then spread the caramel evenly across the bottom of the pan.

Set this out of the way and let the caramel and the cast-iron pan cool completely.

No matter how tempting it is to lick hot caramel off the spoon, or dab your finger into the pan, don't do it! Hot caramel is like liquid lava!! It's HOT, even as it starts to solidify, it can still burn you! Patience.

...and now for the cake part.

Butterscotch Cadamom Cake

8Tbsp (1 stick) Unsalted Butter

3/4cup Sugar

1tsp Vanilla

2 Large Eggs

1 1/2cups Flour

1 1/2tsp Baking Powder

~1Tbsp Butterschotch Powder

~1/2Tbsp Cardamom, ground

1/2cup Whole Milk

pinch salt

Cream together the butter and sugar...

Add the eggs and vanilla, scrape the side of the bowl with a spatula and mix again just to make sure it's all even. Then sift together the flour, baking powder, butterscotch, cardamom, and salt.

Gently fold half the dry stuff into the wet stuff, then add the milk, and then add the rest of the dry stuff. Only mix it just until everything is combined and don't over-mix!

Set the oven to 350degrees, and start building the cake!  ...slice up some plums (or nectarines, or apricots, or oranges, or pineapple, or whatever your heart desires.) This was the last of the plums from our tree, some of which only ripened on one side, so I had to remove the unripe, green bits.

Make a pretty design with your fruit slices on top of the caramel in the cast-iron pan.

...scoop the cake batter on top...

...gently spread the cake batter around trying not to disturb the plums underneath.

Bake for roughly one hour, until the sides pull free from the pan and the center feels set.

Let it cool for about 15 minutes, and then put a plate on top of the cast iron pan and carefully(quickly!) flip it over to turn the cake upside-down.

This cake is definitely a winner, and all things considered, pretty darn easy to make. But most importantly - this is a cake that can also be made in a campfire!!